The tragedy in a nightclub in Lima reveals a network of clandestine parties amid the pandemic

The police escort one of the women arrested at the party in which 13 people died in a stampede in Lima.Martín Mejía / AP

The tragedy in a Lima nightclub, which left 13 dead in a stampede, 12 of them women, when they were evicted by the police for violating sanitary standards due to the pandemic, has revealed the existence of a network that organized this type of clandestine meetings in the midst of the emergency due to covid-19. However, illegal parties and going to bars behind closed doors have been a constant in Peru since the start of the pandemic five months ago, as revealed by police operations to close them.

According to the digital medium Ojo Público , some event producers advertised clandestine parties on social networks, but only provided the address “via inbox” on Facebook or WhatsApp. The investigation revealed at least nine other illegal celebrations in which up to 100 people participated, between July 20 and August 15, in different areas of Lima. One of these events, on the occasion of a birthday, has been registered on the YouTube channel of A&A Producciones.

In the video, the cumbia singer Chacalito performs a Finaditos mix . "We pay tribute to those who went to heaven," says the singer before starting. The chorus of the theme says: "He left, he left and he will not return again, he has gone to eternity, there will no longer be joy in your home." In that event, with live music, the attendees do not wear a mask, they are in a kind of terrace without finishes, and they do not keep the mandatory social distancing. Chacalito mentions some of the places of origin of her fans, such as the 7 de Octubre neighborhood and Sebastián Barranca street, and the districts of Chorrillos and Santa Anita, all of them middle and lower class sectors in Lima.

The Peruvian government established a mandatory confinement between March and June 30 and instructed a curfew five months ago as one of the measures to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. On August 12, given the increase in the daily number of deaths and new infections, the Government banned social gatherings and reinstated quarantine in five entire regions and partially in another 13. However, the National Police detain hundreds each week. of people in bars and parties despite the state of emergency and the curfew. This Saturday, in the district of Santa Anita, 30 people were intervened in a house adapted to a disco. Last week, 300 parishioners drank alcohol in a restobar in Chiclayo, one of the coastal cities where there has been the highest number of infected and deceased.

According to the Interior Ministry, about 120 people attended the clandestine party on Saturday at the Thomas disco y restobar, in the Los Olivos district, but the agents only managed to arrest 23, the rest escaped. Of the 13 deceased, 11 tested positive for coronavirus, as did 15 of the 23 arrested. The deaths occurred by the stampede on a narrow staircase that led to the exit, a door that opened into the premises. President Martín Vizcarra requested a "rigorous investigation" to the Public Ministry and an "exemplary sanction" for the owners and those who have organized this type of event.

The Minister of the Interior, Jorge Montoya, indicated that the 38 policemen who participated in the intervention will go through the molecular test and will be isolated at the Puente Piedra Police School, in northern Lima. Until last week, 440 police officers had died from covid-19 in Peru. In addition to facing possible infections in the operations to evict attendees from bars or clandestine parties, there are investigations into police chiefs for having bought, at overvalued prices, face masks without sufficient biosafety protection.

Violation of sanitary regulations in Peru cuts across all socioeconomic sectors. In one of the parks in the affluent district of Miraflores, young people who gather on skates and skateboards, lower their masks to talk or hug each other when they greet each other. Gatherings and parties that violate health precautions also occur in better-off resident districts. However, the police conduct fewer patrols in those jurisdictions. In one of those few operations, in July, agents detained nine people at a party in a Miraflores building in full curfew. On the other hand, mass meetings have also continued, without distance or masks, called by groups of evangelical dissidents opposed to gender equality.

Historian José Carlos Agüero observes something in particular in behavior that defies sanitary precautions. "A precarious sector of the population does not have the privilege of being afraid of death," he explains. Every day, most newscasts in the capital begin with the images of public transport users who crowd to get on the few buses available at rush hour, or get into cars that provide informal bus service in which they are not You can save the mandatory social distancing.

Until this Sunday, the health authority has reported more than 27,600 deaths from covid-19 and more than 594,000 confirmed infected, however, the Minister of Health, Pilar Mazzetti, estimates that the deaths amount to 47,000.